


Meant To Be

by OfficialStarsandGutters



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-07
Updated: 2013-11-07
Packaged: 2017-12-31 18:36:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1035050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfficialStarsandGutters/pseuds/OfficialStarsandGutters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Earl knows he and Cecil are supposed to be together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meant To Be

 

Earl knows he and Cecil are supposed to be together.

It's not a question. It's not just a fleeting desire or a stirring of lust. He knows he's meant to be with Cecil. He _knows_. Because Cecil Palmer used to be nothing more to him than the voice on the radio.

Then one night he went to sleep. One night he had a dream and in it he saw Cecil's face.

They had been together in the dream and dream Cecil had told him they were meant to be together, that one day he would find him and make him his. It had been one of those hazy dreams where the details are fuzzy, as if everything were underwater. Cecil's voice had been distorted and his face had been out of focus, but Earl could see clearly enough to recognise it and he could understand the words, distorted as they were. Cecil had told him they would be something.

After that he had the dream every night.

It was weird the way emotions worked. How one day Cecil meant nothing to Earl and then, after a few nights of dreaming, suddenly he was all he could think about. His crush had developed swiftly and intensely, leaving him with a wealth of feeling he wasn't used to.

He is going to be with Cecil. He is. It's meant to be.

The only problem is, Cecil doesn't seem to feel the same.

Earl makes a point of meeting with him regularly under the pretence of giving updates on the scouts. It's not really lying, he reasons. He does tell Cecil what they're up to. It's just also a convenient excuse to spend time with him. But Cecil, for all his passion and subjective views, remains fairly professional and detached any time he's speaking to him. Earl doesn't know how to break through that cold surface. He tries telling Cecil stories about his adventures. He tries telling him jokes.

“One of the kids got mauled today. Bear-y messy situation.” (He never said the jokes were good.)

He even tries arranging their meetings like dates. At Rico's, at the diner, at the coffee shop where the cups keep trying to bite him. Either Cecil is completely oblivious to his efforts, or is flat out ignoring them.

And then Carlos comes to town.

The first time Earl hears Cecil gush about his perfect and beautiful haircut he feels the hot burn of jealousy. _And I fell in love instantly._ If it were not for the consequences that would definitely follow, Earl would have switched off the broadcast, would have smashed his radio to pieces. He does leave the room. He leaves his whole house and walks into the desert heat and keeps walking until he reaches Radon Canyon. He stands in the sun and glares down into the depths of the Canyon and pants out hard, angry breaths. The words follow him, repeat themselves over and over in Cecil's smooth voice. _I fell in love instantly._

After half an hour he calms down enough to go home. It doesn't matter. Cecil and he are meant to be together, and this outsider will not come in the way of that.

*

Except he does.

More and more often Earl hears Cecil talking about him on the radio. Carlos this and Carlos that, perfect hair and skin and teeth and jaw and e _verything_. Earl sees less and less of him and he has never been as angry at someone he's never spoken to as he is at Carlos the damn scientist.

Who really is quite attractive. Which only makes Earl even more jealous.

He keeps hoping that Cecil will bore of him. That the novelty will wear off. That the fact Carlos keeps evading his come ons so obviously will eventually discourage him. But no, Cecil remains as smitten as ever, and Earl is left alone and confused. They're supposed to be together. So why is it so difficult? As Cecil remains very much enamoured by Carlos the flawless scientist, Earl throws himself more into his scouts, craves a distraction from the mess of feelings inside him.

*

When they tell him that two of his troop are going to be the first to achieve the Eternal Scout rank, he is very excited and very proud. This fades over time, the excitement and the pride blending with terror, because Earl has lived in Night Vale all his life. Earl knows that the threat of death is always lurking around the corner and that there is a very real chance that he will not come back from this alive. That none of them will. But he will be there to support his boys like a good scoutmaster, regardless.

It's the first time he's spoken to Cecil in months.

He's glad, he supposes, that if he's going to die at least he gets to see Cecil one last time. Is happy for that, at least. He regrets that they were never what they were meant to be. He regrets that he was never brave enough to say anything. It is too late now, but he can't leave it with nothing.

“We could have been something, Cecil.” We were supposed to be. You told me yourself. You told me every night. Cecil stares at him, expression torn between mild curiosity and surprise. Earl grips his arm, allows that one moment of contact to make up for all the hours of emptiness. “Always remember that.”

Cecil offers no reply and Earl leaves the studio, feeling tired and aching. Perhaps he'd be better off getting dragged off into the night.

When he has this thought, he does not actually expect it to happen.

Even as he is dragged, fighting and screaming, he can't help but see a bit of twisted humour about the whole thing. He is laughing and he is sobbing and somewhere between the wails and the begs everything goes black.

*

The first time Earl sees him he is so taken by surprise he forgets to breathe.

When he wakes up he does not know where he is, but he knows that everything hurts. His body is bruised and battered, and he is emotionally exhausted. He has a vague memory of being dragged by the blank faced, grey skinned, dead eyed children.

There is movement near him and when Earl forces his eyes open, squinting against the sudden bright, he sees him.

“Hello, friend,” he says, smiling brightly. It doesn't reach his black eyes, dark and unblinking. “It appears that you are not breathing. Have you forgotten how? It's just in-out, in-out. Like this, watch.”

And as Earl watches him breathe he realises; he'd only ever seen the general shape of the face in his dreams. He'd never seen the details of his mouth or eyes. Never heard his voice clearly. Cecil was the only one that matched that vague image before, but now. But now.

“Whoareyou?” Earl blurts out, all in a rush.

“Sorry? Didn't quite catch that.”

“Who. Are. You?”

“Why, I'm Kevin.” He tilts his head to the side and his grin spreads across his face impossibly wide. “How wonderful it is to meet you. Earl Harlan, yes?”

Yes.

And Earl is lost.


End file.
